MBB finishes Charleston Classic with 76-64 win over St. Joe's

[mat1992 2,233]

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=286721

https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/11/23/mens-basketball-towson-finishes-charleston-classic-against-saint-joseph-s.aspx

Tough to be proud of going 1-2 in a tournament that you should have gone, well, maybe 2-1, but not sure we would have defeated Missouri State had they not blown the Buffalo game. But beating St. Joe's today showed some fortitude. Towson was a slight dog in this one and St. Joe's did beat UConn earlier so anytime you beat an Atlantic Ten team, that's a good thing. Let's start out with the bad.

Handling the Press

Not a good job late in the game. Fortunately, we had a 17-point lead once St. Joe's went to their desperation press. Dottin was pulled after a turnover and Gibson really struggled, stepping on the midcourt line once and his end-of-the game and end-of-the-half situations need a lot of work. Of course, he's a freshman and Dottin is not always the greatest answer, so why not play both together? Put Fobbs at the 3 or even the 4 with Allen or Nick. Good thing they had Gray in instead of Tunstall. That helped even though he had a rough night handling the ball with five turnovers.

Gibson taking a shot with 15 seconds to go in the second half instead of taking it down to around 5 seconds shows his inexperience. He was kind of trapped near the basket and felt he had to throw it up instead of passing it back. He'll learn from these situations.

The good-the bench

When Nick Timberlake is confident, he can be a solid shooter. I don't think he'll eve be like Gibson is, who made three straight three's tonight. But if he doesn't think about his shots, there is no hitch. He just releases it. He had a bunch of them that barely hit iron or didn't at all. But you see the potential. The dunk on the break. He just needs more time in practice this week. He needs to drive and get out on the break. He's explosive. He and Gibson can be very good together, but right now they are coming off the bench. PS said in postgame what I was saying the other day. Get Juwan Gray more involved. You're wasting him on the floor if he's just taking one shot. He's not Tunstall. He's not going to grab 10 boards and play great D, but he can blocks shots and get his hands in the passing lane. He can also shoot it from deep and post up some. He probably should start with Sanders over Tunstall, but that's just me.

So you had 31 points from the bench.

Fastbreak

We actually pushed it tonight. I get it. We slowed it down against Flordia. Against Xavier and even Buffalo, who loves to run. But against St. Joe's, who doesn't have many athletes, we pushed it. Early and often. That's how we should play against most of the teams on our schedule now. Get a rebound and push it. Gibson can find guys. Great look by Fobbs to Tunstall for ally-oop dunk. Fobbs had four assists tonight. Teams are going to be all over him this season. When he drives, he draws attention. Sometimes, he just has to dish it back to the open guy on the perimeter.

Defense

Our D is usually pretty good. You know St. Joe's was going to launch threes. They just missed a bunch of open threes in the first half. In the second, they got hot. It did not look good when they cut it to two, but our offense got it going again and our defense sort of was stifled by the offense getting it going again. They scored just 64 points so that's a good thing because they can score in bunches. Ryan Daly had just 13 points and 12 boards. He had 30 against UConn. Really nice job on him and give the coaches credit for designing a nice gameplan. He's tough to double because he'll pass it out but using Gray on him and swtiching big guys on him made sense.

Three-point shooting

What? We shot 10 of 23 for 43.5%. That's why we won big. That's not going to happen every night but it was nice seeing Fobbs shoot 2 of 4 from the field, even though he shot just 4 of 13 overall. Still think he's pressing some. Taking too many poor shots where he just needs to relax and pass it out. Even Dottin hit one. And Timberlake hit two. Betrand hit one late where it looked like the Hawks were creeping back in the game.

Here is Skerry, who yes, joined the postgame on TSN:

"I'm really proud of our guys. To be up 20 on an A-10 team after heartbreak city shows a lot about our potential. We're 5-2 against the A-10 in the last 7 games.  Defense was strong tonight. Great program win. St. Joe's is a long storied program. I thought Allen was really intelligent. Fobbs was good. We're going to be a deep team. Happy with Nakye. His grandfather passed away last night. I think that's going to be the strength of the group. We're deep. Need some guys to consistently separate. Nick practiced (very little). Missed 3.5 weeks. He's going to be good. Juwan (Gray) is playing good for us. I told him I should have played him more (the other night). We have to work on things. Handle the ball better. St. Joe's is not bad. They beat UConn. Great thing for our program. Last four games on national television. Playing against brand name teams on national TV.

 

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

5-2 against A10 teams per PS.   Made me crack up.   He sounded like a man that read this board.   
Take the win but Martelli less Hawks...  that program in the dumps.  

More Gray and Timberlake going forward.  

[TSU88 1,072]

I shall climb off the ledge ... for now. 

Mat touched on much of what I was going to write, Huge game from the bench guys, most notably Gray, Gibson & Timberlake. Bench scored  33 points on 12-21 shooting, including 6-12 from 3.

Dottin & Gibson combined to shoot a sizzling 8-12 from the field, including 4-5 from 3. They also combined for 6 assists (that’s good) & 6 TO’s (that’s bad). Got to admit, that so far, Dottin’s offensive game has improved from last year. 

Betrand continues to impress & even though Fobbs shot 4-13, he did contribute 7 boards & 4 assists. He, Sanders & Tunstall went 7-25 from the field and we still won. That’s what happens when you shoot 43% from 3.

Nice to see Timberlake drain a couple 3’s. Him, Betrand, Gray, Gibson & hopefully Fobbs (heck, even Dottin & Tunstall on occasion) gives us the potential to knock down more 3’s than anytime in the past under Skerry that I can recall.

A cautionary note-we struggled again vs the press. Fortunately we built up such a big lead tonight that it didn’t matter. I’m sure future opponents are taking note of this. This has to be priority #1 in terms of things that must be improved upon.

 

 

[mat1992 2,233]

6 minutes ago, Bay Area Tiger said:

5-2 against A10 teams per PS.   Made me crack up.   He sounded like a man that read this board.   
Take the win but Martelli less Hawks...  that program in the dumps.  

More Gray and Timberlake going forward.  

That program also beat UConn. Martelli was there too long. But sure, they are not as good as they were a few years ago. It's not a significant win but it is a solid win. Anytime you can beat an A-10 team, even if they are mediocre-at-best in the league. What we are is a major question mark still.

But I do like one thing and that's playing Gibson in these late situations. It will hopefully pay off later.

[BoogerJ 30]

No one makes the NCAA Tournament in March from the CAA by games they win in November.  This is a 100% proven fact.  The CAA is a weak league and is not getting an at-large bid. The way people whine and whimper about pre Thanksgiving losses could make a less learned observer think that Towson had actually made a postseason appearance since the George H W Bush Administration. But if it helps you to get your undies in a bunch over such then enjoy the shared misery. It's funny to watch.  All that being true, the loss to Buffalo was brutal.

[TSU88 1,072]

Not so sure the CAA is a weak league, but regardless, it’s still a 1-bid league. 

The loss to Buffalo was so brutal that if Tony Robbins were a TU fan, he would have been on this board bitching & moaning like many of us, including me. No apologies offered for that. It’s my inalienable right to be miserable after a loss like that.
 

[bucketsandbirds 16]

They showed a lot of resilience in having the 18 point lead cut to 2, then stopping the bleeding and building it back up. 
 

No doubt they have to work on handling the press.  Gibson needs to learn situational awareness, a couple “freshman like mistakes” down the stretch.  
 

Trust me, by February he’ll look like a much more complete player.   Love the potential future of him and Timberlake out there together. 

[mat1992 2,233]

2 minutes ago, BoogerJ said:

No one makes the NCAA Tournament in March from the CAA by games they win in November.  This is a 100% proven fact.  The CAA is a weak league and is not getting an at-large bid. The way people whine and whimper about pre Thanksgiving losses could make a less learned observer think that Towson had actually made a postseason appearance since the George H W Bush Administration. But if it helps you to get your undies in a bunch over such then enjoy the shared misery. It's funny to watch.  All that being true, the loss to Buffalo was brutal.

If people didn't whine about November losses or make a big deal (we're not) about beating an average team, there would be no message boards about basketball. We would just close them until January. Do you think Kentucky losing to Evansville really means jack squat? But I guarantee you Wildcat fans were going crazy after that one. 

[mat1992 2,233]

Just now, TSU88 said:

Not so sure the CAA is a weak league, but regardless, it’s still a 1-bid league. 

The loss to Buffalo was so brutal that if Tony Robbins were a TU fan, he would have been on this board bitching & moaning like many of us, including me. No apologies offered for that. It’s my inalienable right to be miserable after a loss like that.
 

Not a weak league. The RPI has the CAA as the sixth-ranked conference. Of course, it's very early. I don't pay for Ken Pom so I don't know what he has the CAA.

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/rpi-ranking/rpi-rating-by-conf

[BoogerJ 30]

Here's the difference... KENTUCKY is a Blue Blood Basketball Program and competes in a league that can get multiple at-large bids, so yes, it's 100% different than Towson and the one-bid league CAA.